A
recent
article by media industry veteran Merrill Brown in the
Carnegie Reporter discusses the challenges faced by news
organizations trying to reach younger audiences. The
report attempts to assess where these younger people get
their news today – and where they may be getting it in
the future.

Perhaps
surprisingly, local TV ranked as the most used news
source, with more than 70 percent of the age group using
it at least once a week and over half at least three
times a week. Meanwhile, the second-most-used weekly
news source, the Internet, was number one amongst men,
high-income groups, and broadband users.

The 18-34
demographic intends to continue increasing its use of
the Internet as a primary news source, according to the
report. Newspapers and national television broadcast
news fare poorly with this group, as the future news
consumers and leaders of a complex, modern society
abandon the news as we've known it. It’s increasingly
clear that a great number of them will never return to
daily newspapers and national broadcast news programs.

And with
most Internet users now connecting via high-speed
broadband services, daily use of the Internet among all
groups is likely to continue climbing. Internet portals
have emerged in the survey as the most frequently cited
daily news source, with 44 percent of respondents using
portals at least once a day for news.

Other
notable findings revealed by the survey:

Although
ranked as the third most important news source,
newspapers have no clear strengths and are the least
preferred choice for local, national and
international news.

News has
to be produced specifically for and directed to the
audiences of the future, and must reach them in the
ways they want. New products could be built around
information services designed for the Internet, or
for cellular and multimedia delivery.

The report
concludes, “While the outright collapse of large news
organizations is hardly imminent, as the new century
progresses, it's hard to escape the fact that their
franchises have eroded and their futures are far from
certain. A turnaround is certainly possible, but only
for those news organizations willing to invest time,
thought and resources into engaging their audiences,
especially younger consumers. The trend lines are clear.
So is the importance of a dynamic news business to our
civic life, to our educational future, and to our
democracy.”